Conductor Jeffrey Schoyen Debuts at SSO Holiday Concert
SALISBURY, MD---The Salisbury Symphony Orchestra at Salisbury University inaugurates its 20th anniversary season by looking forward and back: forward to a new conductor, and back by including a major choral work in its upcoming concert, as it did at its debut 20 years ago.
Dr. Jeffrey Schoyen makes his SSO conducting debut in the holiday concert at 8 p.m. Saturday, December 10, in Holloway Hall Auditorium. The SSO gives the culminating performance of the SU “Ornaments in Harmony” Music Festival. The symphony presents a varied program of holiday and classical selections, including Vivaldi’s “Gloria” with the 40-member Salisbury Chorale.
Schoyen has had a distinguished music career. As a youth he was a membere of the Atlanta Youth Symphony, studied cello with the principal soloist of the Atlanta Symphony and was exposed to musicians and teachers at Itzak Perlman. At the famed tanglewood Summer Music Festival, the oldest and most renown festival of its kind in the U.S., he won fellowships and had a chance to play under such music legends at Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, John Williams and Aaron Copland.
After graduating with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music, he received a grant to study at the Royal College of Music in London with famed cellist William Pleeth. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University and his Doctor of Musical Arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, both renown for their performing and fine arts programs.
Working with both the SSO and its affiliated Youth and Collegiate Orchestra this fall, he sees the SSO as a way to unite a community: “The person sitting beside you could be a medical doctor, a teacher or a student. Being a part of the SSO gives you a deep sense of community and identity.”
During the concert, he leads the orchestra in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snow Maiden Suite; Bizet’s “Carillon” from L’Arlessienne Suite No. 1; and “Introduction,” “March” and “Shepherd’s Dance” from Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, as well as Vivaldi’s “Gloria” with the Salisbury Chorale, directed by Dr. William M. Folger, director of choral activities at SU. The performance concludes with the SSO’s traditional Holiday Sing-along.
Sponsored by the Bank of Delmarva, admission is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors, $5 for children 12 and under and SU ID holders. A family ticket package, admitting two adults and two children, is available for $45. For advance tickets call the SU Box Office at 410-543-6228 or visit the SU Bookstore Web site at www.salisbury.collegestoreonline.com (click “SU Box Office”). For more information call 410-548-5587 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.